


Le Cirque Des Mille Soleils: The Illusionist and the Inventor

by Vaders_Apprentice



Series: Le Cirque Des Mille Soleils [1]
Category: One Piece, The Night Circus - Erin Morgenstern
Genre: Alternate Origin Story, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Circus, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Fusion, Alternate Universe - Magic, Alternate Universe - Magical Realism, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Modern with Magic, Alternate Universe - Night Circus, Alternate Universe - Night Circus Fusion, Alternate Universe - The Night Circus Fusion, Alternate Universe - Urban Fantasy, Angst, Angst and Feels, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Angst and Romance, Angst with a Happy Ending, Beautiful, Circus, Comfort/Angst, Crossovers & Fandom Fusions, Crush at First Sight, Crushes, Dance Metaphors, Declarations Of Love, Demons, Developing Relationship, Drama & Romance, Elemental Magic, Emotional Hurt, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Epic, Epic Love, Epic Poetry, Established Relationship, Everything is Beautiful and Nothing Hurts, Extended Metaphors, F/M, Falling In Love, First Love, Fluff and Angst, Forbidden Love, Friendship/Love, Gen, Gentle Kissing, Heavy Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Inspired by Poetry, Inspired by The Night Circus, Kissing, Kissing in the Rain, Light Angst, Love, Love Stories, Love at First Sight, Magic, Magic-Users, Magical Realism, Metaphors, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Minor Franky/Nico Robin, Mugiwara no Ichimi | Straw Hat Pirates, Mysticism, Origin Story, POV Alternating, POV Outsider, POV Second Person, Pirate Stories, Pirate Stories - Freeform, Pirates, Poetic, Poetry, Relationship(s), Resolved Romantic Tension, Romance, Romantic Angst, Romantic Fluff, Romantic Friendship, Romantic Gestures, Romantic Relationship, Romantic Soulmates, Side Story, Slow Romance, Soulmates, Star-crossed, Story within a Story, Sweet, Their Love Is So, True Love, Unresolved Romantic Tension, Untold Story, Urban Fantasy, Urban Legends, deserved, implied - Freeform, kinda - Freeform, romantic relationships, sorta - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-18
Updated: 2018-08-18
Packaged: 2019-06-27 13:43:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,319
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15686580
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vaders_Apprentice/pseuds/Vaders_Apprentice
Summary: "The heart of the tale and the ideas behind it are simple. Time has altered and condensed their nuances, made them more than story, greater than the sums of their parts. But that requires time. The truest tales require time and familiarity to become what they are." -The Night Circus, by Erin MorgensternWithin a mysterious circus, its Inventor and Illusionist fall deeply into love.ACirque Des Mille Soleilsstory.





	Le Cirque Des Mille Soleils: The Illusionist and the Inventor

**Author's Note:**

> This story was inspired by The Night Circus, a book by Erin Morgenstern. No characters from it will appear, as it's a universe fusion with the setting inspired by the book and characters from the anime One Piece. I hope you love it as much as I do.
> 
> * * * * * * * *
> 
> I do not own One Piece or The Night Circus, and I'm not making any profit off of it besides enjoyment.

 

**_First, a beginning._ **

 

The circus is a mystery. It arrives at the site of a show with no warning, no announcements, and departs just as mysteriously. 

_Le Cirque Des Mille Soleils_ , they call it. The Circus Of A Thousand Suns.

 _A ghost circus_ , people whisper, _timeless in more ways than mere mortals can know._

No one knows who owns the circus, who operates it, who concocts its dizzying spectacles and plans its secretive delights.

Or at least that is what the public thinks, when they wonder about the hidden mysteries contained within.

 _The performers never age_ , whisper those of the elderly lucky enough to visit many times throughout their lives. _Marvels, mysteries, mind-bending magic - do you truly believe it's only a show?_

 

**_Now, a continuation._ **

 

 _The Illusionist is talented_ , thinks the cobalt-haired Inventor. _The Demon child has grown into a stunning woman._

The Inventor is not a new arrival to the circus, so he knows the rumors. All the things that are never said, the words and warnings whispered only to the shadows, the truths they all know but never discuss.

 _There is magic here_ , he was warned. _This may be a circus but these are not tricks. Never question the way things work, the way the tasks are completed without human interference, the way people won't discuss certain parts of their past. The Illusionist was called a Demon child for a_ reason _, understand? Everyone here has secrets, and we are all more than we should be._

_The final lesson?_

_Among magic and monsters,_ never _forget what you_ are _._

And he may regularly play with explosives, but he knows to listen to the well-meant warnings, so the blue haired man listens to the words and tries to heed them. The only unsaid rule he breaks is a subtler one: _Don't approach the Illusionist, for fear of invoking her wrath._

He doesn't break it without a reason. But he knows what it's like to be the strange one, with a curious look to him and an inexplicable gift no one understood. Because these days, he's the Circus' eccentric Inventor, an odd guy among oddities. But once upon a time, he was a peculiar boy with blue yet un-dyed hair and power over machines. A boy who could build things no others understood, make gears and wires preform functions that metal shouldn't be capable of - yet under his hands, it all is.

So when that little boy, all grown up, sees a woman who stands alone, a valued member of the community yet set apart, he doesn't stay away. Instead he approaches her slowly. 

Offers to use his gift to enhance her shows. Finds her preferred variety of tea and ensures she has a warm cup in hand in her more melancholy moods. Spends time in her quarters and invites her to his.

And gradually they come together, reach a point where the sight of his miscellaneous gears nestled among her books are commonplace. Where her tea in his pantry and cola among her drinks is no cause for remark. Where the perfume of her favorite flower and the smoke from his latest explosion mingle together together in an unexpectedly perfect combination of scents that they eventually come to think of as _theirs._

 

**_Last, but not a true ending._ **

 

It's your first time at Le Cirque Des Mille Soleils, and you're enjoying yourself. The incredible food comes from a million different places, the ambience is superb, and the shows are captivating. You wander the winding paths that curl around the tents in circles, and pause when you see a sign simply marked, _The Illusionist._

Attention caught, you enter the tent and find a ring of steadily filling seats. You take one, and for a few minutes wait for the last stragglers to arrive. Once they have all settled in, the audience waits for a moment, and from some unseen place music begins to echo. 

It's a violin, faint and serene, hopeful instead of sad. For a few moments, all is still as the audience listens to the notes play, before you notice tendrils of mist curling around the edges of the tent.

You watch carefully as it thickens into fog and obscures the floor, walls and even wafts toward the ceiling. By now the other attendees have become aware of this, and the whispers increase as figures emerge from the gray-white mass. 

_Dancers_ , you think. You're proven right as the figures pair off, bow, and begin to waltz around the center of the ring you are seated in. 

"A very long time ago, in the age of pirates..." A woman's voice begins to speak, and you can't tell where it's coming from. It's ethereal and deep, and as mysterious as the haunting stringed instruments.

In the mist, you see a hand beckoning, fingers fluttering at you in a wave, but when you blink the arm is gone. You see a pair of eyes that lack a face in the shifting mists. Footsteps behind you, warm breath and laughter next to your ear, ghostly strands of hair not your own trail against the back of your neck as though someone is leaning over you from behind, yet when you look there is no one there.

And then, with no warning, another figure begins to rise from the mist. The music changes to something more anticipatory, and flickers of lighting flash around the edges of the room. A crescendo builds, and as it crests you can finally make out the details of the woman's appearance.

With a pearly dress and black hair, her ice blue eyes are the only flash of color on her as she stands, grins at her audience, and bows.

_The Illusionist has made her entrance._

And you find yourself doubting if she is truly only an illusionist at all.

_The first lesson?_

_Remember that while you may be more of Magic than you are of men, at your core you will always be human._

After the show you leave the tent still reeling from the wonders the Illusionist just displayed before you, the stories her acts of magic told. _Wonderous doesn't begin to describe it_ , you think, before your eyes catch on two people ahead of you on the path.

At first glance, they aren't familiar, just another couple enjoying the circus, but beneath the woman's cherry-blossom embroidered coat, you see a familiar white dress. And once you look more closely at the man you recall seeing him at the show as well. Only, you'd swear his hair hadn't been blue...

But as you think, the man hands the woman the woman a bouquet, white roses tied with a bright blue ribbon, paired with a smile and a whisper of, "Happy Valentine's Day, Robin."

The Illusionist, Robin, raises the delicate blooms to her nose and inhales. She exhales slowly, and then after laying the roses down on a nearby bench, she pulls the man into a kiss. 

You walk past them, trying not to watch them too obviously, and and it's only because your ears are pricked that you hear her tell him, "I love you, Franky."

"Love you too." He says, pulling her down to sit on the bench side-by-side. And there's no possessiveness in the embrace, no need to stake a claim or announce their relationship to the world, only a gentle ease as he settles in next to her like he's never been anywhere else.

And as you walk away, you marvel at all the wonders the Cirque Des Mille Soleils contains, all the incredible feats the Illusionist accomplished in her shows, and then you think of the couple who fit like they belong together, and you smile secretly to yourself.

It was good, you decide, to have a reminder that even though they are capable of so many magical things they are still people, who do such a perfectly human thing as fall in love.

**Author's Note:**

> So, what did you think? I hope the characters aren't OOC, but if they stray in that direction, my personal explanation is that this is an alternate universe and their different circumstances would have given them slightly different character evolutions. But then, that's the fun of AUs, isn't it? That indescribable wonder when you have an amazing idea and start thinking, "What if?" 
> 
> Speaking of 'what ifs', I know this isn't my usual style, but I thought mimicking the sheer majesty of the language that _Night Circus_ used would be an interesting experiment. And it seems to have turned out pretty well!
> 
> I'd love to hear from my readers, so please don't hesitate to share your thoughts on this story.
> 
> And yes, this story is a series that I plan to continue, and I hope that you're as spellbound by the possibilities of this 'verse as I am.


End file.
